From the Other Side of the Wire
by EsotericxMoon
Summary: Inspired by Autumdragon's "Internet Connection". / Sakura has had enough. She's had enough of being pushed aside both literally and figuratively. She's tired, she's annoyed, she's had it. She finally sums up her annoyances in a rant and, for kicks, saves it on a school computer's shared account. Little does she expect a reply the next time she visits... AU, OOC, first fic *noob*
1. Chapter 1

**Since this is my first post, I feel like I should be entitled to a hello, right? *is a noob* So hello. I've always wanted to try writing a fanfic, and in reading Autumdragon's fanfic on here, the concept was interesting, so I wanted to write my version of it. If you're Autumdragon and this isn't okay please let me know and I'll remove it immediately =x**

**Anyways, I think I'm supposed to put some disclaimers here like: This is purely fiction, I don't own CCS or any of the characters, heck, I don't even own the concept of this story... To add to these disclaimers I guess I should mention this first chapter is mostly boring scene-setting stuff, and I promise I'll try to make it better from here. So if you read this please R&R so I can try harder to suck less in the next chapter ^^"**

* * *

_Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick._

Sakura stared absentmindedly at the clock above the blackboard, trying to urge the small, thin second-hand to move faster by glaring at it with her emerald green eyes. It had probably been less than 15 minutes since class had started, but already she was bored and looking forward to the end of class—even though she knew she had absolutely nothing to look forward to now that her much-awaited after school plans had been cancelled on her by the very person who had invited her out.

She cast an annoyed stare in the direction of the girl sitting beside her who appeared to be diligently paying attention and was completely oblivious to her stare. As the girl brushed a strand of her long, raven-coloured hair away from her delicate face, Sakura caught a glimpse of a cell phone, tightly clasped in the girl's other hand. At that moment, the cell phone buzzed and the girl took a moment to discreetly sneak a peek at the screen before returning her eyes to the front, her violet eyes gleaming with happiness. Sakura rolled her eyes. There was only one person whose message would keep the honours-student Tomoyo from paying full attention to her class material, and he was probably the same person who was responsible for her cancelled after school plans.

It had been months since Tomoyo had started dating her boyfriend, Eriol, and the two of them STILL hadn't gotten over the initial lovey-dovey "I'm-only-alive-for-the-purpose-of-being-with-you" phase. Don't get things wrong. Sakura was _happy_ at the fact that her best friend—heck—her _only_ friend had finally found the person she felt she was—and I quote—"destined to be with", but she was getting really tired of playing second fiddle to a guy who seemed to want to do nothing but lock lips with her friend at every given opportunity. Not to mention the fact that Eriol was one among the most popular guys in school and, given the messed up rigidity of the social hierarchy system at their school, meant that he was always sweeping Tomoyo away to join their circle of friends between every class.

At first Tomoyo had occasionally thought to hesitantly invite Sakura to join her with Eriol and the others, but that would have meant sitting with _that group_ and listening to nothing but their pointless high school gossip and badmouthing of other people while Tomoyo and Eriol were lost in a world of their own. Not to mention the aftermath of questions and glares that she'd have to deal with from other girls who wanted to know how a nobody like her could ever have managed to join the ranks of the popular, even just to sit at the same table as them. Sakura rolled her eyes again. Why should it even matter who hung out with the popular kids? If anyone else wanted to join them that badly, they should walk up to them and ask to sit with them themselves, shouldn't they? What was so good about dealing with such flashy and shallow people anyways? Always ranting about the colors they would paint their nails with and what clothes they would wear to attract the attention of some "hottie" who was their fancy of the month. Useless.

To Sakura, sitting at her desk in her plain-Jane t-shirt and jeans as she did every day was more than sufficient and didn't involve hours of discussion and deliberation to pick out. Yeah, she was plain and boring. Yeah, that was probably the reason no one paid her any mind. But whatever, she could live with it. Sure, it sucked when it came to group work or pair activities because she was always the odd one out who had to wait for everyone to be paired up before being paired with the leftover person. But that was fine. It was actually good. Better than when she was the odd one out and had to join another pair—meaning she would join her only friend Tomoyo's pair and shoot dirty looks at the guy who had taken the place she should have occupied.

A sudden rap at the front of her desk made Sakura start and turn to find herself face to face with her history teacher—what was his name?—who did not seem all too pleased with his student's daydreaming. "I don't know what you find so fascinating about Ms. Daidouji's face at the moment Ms. Kinomoto, but I would appreciate it if you spent half as much time staring at the textbook where we are supposed to be reading from." He said in a harsh tone. A couple of people sniggered, and Tomoyo's gaze was finally averted from her cell phone to glancing questioningly at Sakura.

Sakura's cheeks coloured as she looked away and back to her textbook sheepishly. "Yes sir." She muttered, not daring to look back at her teacher, nor at Tomoyo. _God_. Why did teachers have to point out every detail of what she was doing so that the rest of the class could hear?

Sakura kept her eyes trained on the book for the remainder of the period without ever flipping away from the page that she had originally opened the book to at the start of the lesson. History was a pointless lesson. Who cares who killed whom 200 years ago and how that led someone to start a rebellion? Not like those dead guys would come back and go at it all over again. It was pointless. All pointless.

"…kura… Sakura?" Sakura finally lifted her eyes from her book as she realized someone was calling her name. She turned to find Tomoyo standing beside her, noticing that half the class had already left when they had been dismissed. "Are you okay Sakura?" Her friend asked with a small frown.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just not all here at the moment it seems." Sakura replied bluntly with a shrug. "Are you sure you still have time to be chatting with me? Isn't Eriol waiting?"

"He said he'd meet me outside the school in 10 minutes…" Tomoyo hesitated. "Listen Sakura, I'm really sorry I had to cancel our plans again. I forgot to mention we had plans to Eriol before he went and bought the movie tickets for today."

It kind of stung to hear that her best and only friend had forgotten to mention that she had plans with me when she was making plans with her boyfriend. Sakura knew was definitely a big priority in Tomoyo's life. Not. She fought hard to repress a sigh and forced myself to smile. "It's okay Tomoyo, we didn't have any big plans anyways. Go have a good time with Eriol. I kind of have some stuff to do today anyways." That was a lie. Sakura was as free as free could be, but telling her friend that would make her feel even more guilty. Not that that would have necessarily been a bad thing. Sure, Sakura would have been annoyed but not upset if this was the first time Tomoyo had unexpectedly cancelled on plans with me to prioritize her boyfriend, but this wasn't the first time. This was the third.

"Thanks Sakura, you're the best!" Tomoyo flashed a quick smile. "Then I'll message you later and take you out some other time to make up for it. 'later!" And having cleared her conscience, Tomoyo hurried out of the classroom to where Eriol would undoubtedly already be waiting.

Sakura finally let out the sigh She had been holding in and started to pack up her things. She had always scoffed at stories about how some girls could really get so obsessed with their boyfriends and relationships that they would do anything to spend time with them and spend every waking moment of their lives while they were apart thinking of them. While she know that sensible Tomoyo would never _really_ stoop that low (hopefully), the fact that even she would become so deeply involved with him—even to an uncharacteristically Tomoyo-ish level—really made Sakura wonder if those exaggerated stories were really as exaggerated as she had first thought. Sakura shuddered, hoping that she would never be a love-obsessed person who could only derive happiness from being in the presence of another. After all, who needs love? Sakura knew she stronger than that, and she told herself so for the umpteenth time.

Since it's a nice day out and she had nothing better to do, Sakura decided to take the long route home. Walking briskly past groups of girls and guys from her high school without stopping to greet anyone, she rounded the corner towards a less crowded path. Only when the number of students thinned did Sakura allow herself to slow down her pace. The late-April breeze as it brushes through her honey-coloured hair, and she relished the feel of the afternoon sun on her skin. At 16 years, her hairstyle was still the same as it was when she was five—short and partially tied up on each side. Not because I'm uncreative and lazy to change her hairstyle, certainly not. Sakura was just going for… um… consistency. Yeah, definitely consistency, she told herself. Agh, why did it even matter, the point is that she was enjoying her walk home, okay?

So anyways, she was enjoying her walk home, when she noticed some cute-looking desserts being advertised at a shop along her way. After the cherry blossoms had finished blooming, the next seasonal ingredient was out: strawberries. Yum. Seeing no reason to return early to an empty house, particularly since she was supposed to have had plans with Tomoyo, Sakura decided to treat herself to a strawberry cake, hoping to raise her mood.

The shop was a posh little café that she had been to with Tomoyo once or twice before. After ordering her dessert, Sakura's gaze slid absentmindedly out the shop window, observing bypassers in boredom. When her dessert arrived at last, she took a moment to admire how well decorated it was, before lifting her fork to dig in.

"—but why? WHY are you dating her Syaoran?!" A whiny voice from the girl sitting behind her practically screamed. Sakura was vaguely aware of two people who had been sitting in the booth behind her, mostly because the girl's voice had been increasing in volume since a while back.

"Meiling, you know I have my reasons… and she's not a bad person, really. I'll introduce you to her one day." The guy replied. Sakura raised an eyebrow before returning to her dessert. '_Must be a conversation with an ex or something, oh well_,' she thought to herself.

"Just because she's 'not a bad person', that doesn't mean you should date her! Do you even love her? What are you thinking?!" The girl questioned, frustration clearly lacing each word. The girl's question was followed by a moment of silence, to which Sakura chanced a casual glance. All she could see of the girl was that she had long and straight jet-black hair tied in two ponytails since her back was to Sakura, but she saw a guy roughly her age with dark chestnut-brown hair and bright amber eyes. Sakura frowned slightly to herself as she scanned his face, wondering why it seemed vaguely familiar. '_Probably some kid from her school'_, she dismissed.

His expression was cool, betraying no emotion as he replied, "of course I do" in his consistent, calm and collected tone. '_Way to be frank to an ex.'_ Sakura thought, swallowing another bite of her cake, figuring that she should probably tune out about now.

"No…" The girl whispered in a tone that was barely audible to Sakura. "I know it's a lie. I know you don't love her. You don't love her, especially as much as I love you. Dating her is all just an excuse to distance yourself from me, isn't it?" The girl's voice wavered but grew in desperation. '_Confident much?' _Sakura wondered, surprised by the girl's strong insistence that it was all about her.

"I know that you might find it hard to deal with my feelings for you because I'm your cousin, and I know that our temporary engagement was something we carelessly decided on as kids, but I want you to know that my love for you doesn't have anything to do with family names or relations, and I won't back down if this half-hearted explanation is all you can give me." The girl continued, sounding frustrated, determined, and on the verge of tears all at once.

_That's some strong fee—wait what? Did she just say his cousin? _Sakura stopped trying to avoid eavesdropping, at full attention now.

"Meiling. You know it's not because of you that I'm dating her. Try… try to think about it more carefully, you don't feel that sort of love for me the way you think you do."

_Ouch. Harsh much?_ Sakura thought, wondering how the girl would take that rejection.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT I FEEL OR DON'T FEEL AS IF YOU UNDERSTAND ME LI SYAORAN!" The girl screamed loudly, causing other customers to turn and one passing waitress to stop and stare a little nervously. Aware that she was causing a scene, the girl stood up and ran out the door. Sakura caught a glimpse of her pretty but tear-streaked face as she ran by. The boy watched sadly as she left, but made no effort to chase after her. He continued sipping his coffee, even after Sakura paid her bill and left.


	2. Chapter 2

**So since this is my first story, I was completely not expecting anyone to actually read the boring stuff I wrote in the first chapter. But according to this thing some people have seen it, and a person or two even favourited/followed it O_o I don't know what that means to other people, but to me I was thrilled, so I decided to write another. Updates will probably not happen this quickly again, but hey... if I manage to catch anyone's attention with it I'll try.**

**I think I need the same disclaimer spheal so: I don't own any of the characters nor the original CCS story. The original storyline was inspired by Autumdragon. **

**GLHF, please drop me a comment if you're patient/dedicated enough to actually read to the end. Even a word would do so I can thank you for actually reading this mess.**

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"..kura… Sakura… HEY YOU LITTLE MONSTER HURRY UP AND WAKE UP ALREADY!" Someone shouted from right beside her, causing Sakura to wake with a start and fall off the other side of the bed. And she had been having such a good dream too about butterflies and rainbows and unicorns—wait, that wasn't right. About hot guys and six-packs and cars and—what the hell was she talking about? You know what, forget it. The popular kid 'stupid mentality' was finally getting to her.

"Oof. Ouch…" She complained, rubbing her back. Her emerald eyes glared annoyed at her older brother, Toya, who stood with a half-eaten piece of toast in his hand, smirking down at her from the other side of her bed. "Toya! If you were going to wake me, you could have asked nicely or something!"

"Hmph, it would be noon before you finally woke up if I ever tried the 'nice' approach. As it is, you're already going to be late for school. And I'm off to mine, so see you." And with that, he turned to leave. "By the way, I ate out the toast, so good luck finding food before your mad-dash to class."

Sakura finally looked at her clock and groaned. 8:00. Meaning that she'd have to leave NOW to even make it to school before the bell at 8:30. Toya, that jerk. He probably left her to sleep until the very last moment, knowing that she'd be late if she didn't frantically scramble to get to class. Pulling on the same t-shirt and jeans that she'd wore the previous day, and scrambling to the bathroom, Sakura was dressed and ready to bolt in under 10 minutes.

* * *

Arriving to class with only minutes to spare, Sakura blazed down the hallway and past some stragglers who were sauntering to class like they had all the time in the world, not caring as she bumped two or three of them who didn't bother to avoid her as she went by.

"Normally one would apologize to someone after walking into someone, you know?" A voice came from behind her from someone Sakura has just brushed past.

"Yeah, but normally one would only apologize if one was actually sorry, you know?" Sakura shot back. She stopped and turned in mild surprise. No one ever stopped to comment on her behaviour, especially when it looked like she was on a warpath. Cold emerald eyes turned to meet bemused amber eyes, and Sakura realized that she was facing the same boy whose conversation she had overheard in the café the day before.

"Someone's snappy early in the morning." Sakura frowned. She didn't have time to argue with this guy, she was already going to be—_ding dong ding dong… dong ding ding dong_—great, she was late.

"Well maybe I wouldn't be as snappy if I didn't have to stop and explain myself instead of making it to class on time." She wondered why this guy was still here rooted to the spot anyways. Didn't he have class to go to too?

The boy opened his mouth, doubtlessly to shoot back some smart-aleck response, but was cut off as someone ran smack into him from behind, causing him to lurch forward and regain his balance.

"Syao-kun, what are you doing here? We're already late." A girl with long brown hair and deep brown eyes cooed, wrapping her arms around the boy. Sakura frowned at the girl for a moment before it finally clicked. The two in front of her were the top of the top of the school's social hierarchy.

"Sorry Lily, I was on my way, I just stopped because…" The boy who Sakura finally recognized was _the_ Li Syaoran, the number one school heartthrob, rumoured to have come from the prestigious Li family in Hong Kong replied to the girl, motioning to Sakura who was still standing in front of them.

Sakura felt the girl turn to her and cast a suspicious cursory glance. "Geez honey, you can't go talking with other girls when you have me!" The girl who had held the title of the school's #1 idol, Suzuki Yuri, whined as she turned her attention back to her boyfriend, planting a kiss on his cheek. Being of mixed Japanese-French heritage and of good standing, Lily (her nickname from the English translation of her name) was probably the only girl jealously deemed by other girls to be the perfect match for their idolized prince. Sakura usually rolled her eyes and walked away at the mention of either of them. She didn't want to deal with such flashy, gossip-starting creatures.

"It's not like I had any interest in talking to him. Go somewhere else if you're going to go make out." Sakura said in annoyance, turning to find a vending machine. Now that she was already late for class, might as well get something to eat first.

"You! I didn't even finish talki-" Syaoran started but cut himself off because she had already rounded the corner and left.

* * *

"Detention Kinomoto, 30 minutes." Were the first words out of her math teacher's mouth as she walked in to their classroom 15 minutes late. This was why she couldn't be late for class on Tuesday mornings, she'd have to deal with her uptight math teacher who strictly believed that she had the right to make her student waste twice as much of their time as she "was made to waste without them in the classroom". It's not like Sakura's absence in the class for all of 15 minutes even made a difference. The class hadn't even started learning yet, because they had simply finished reviewing their homework. Her teacher was being unreasonable and she knew it.

Sakura scowled as she took her seat behind Tomoyo, only grunting in response to her friend's whispered greeting. She still hadn't completely forgiven the girl for ditching yesterday.

"And fix your expression! Don't scowl at me like it's my fault you're late " Her teacher called, evidently still out to get her. Sakura wanted to call back 'only if you fix your face first', but she knew that it would get her nothing other than an extended detention or another trip to the principal's office, and god knows that nobody wanted another one of those. Sakura could be a good student when she wanted to, she could get on people's good sides if she needed, it was just too much of a hassle and not worth her effort. It was just too bad that whenever she was in a bad mood people decided to punish her for it.

After passing through an uneventful second period and lunchtime, Sakura was pulling books out of her locker when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find herself face to face with Lily, along with two of her groupies.

"Kinomoto," the girl acknowledged impassively.

"Lily." Sakura replied with a bored look.

"That's Suzuki to you," Lily replied with a frown, "who are you to call me by my name?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever Lily, what do you want with me?"

Lily looked like she was about to continue with the name-addressing issue, but changed her mind. "What were you doing talking with Syaoran this morning?"

Sakura snorted. "Just having a friendly conversation, what's it to you?" Was this girl seriously insecure enough to think that catching her boyfriend talking with some other girl _once_ would mean he was cheating on her? Sakura didn't even care to find out. But it looked like describing her chat with Syaoran as a "friendly conversation" rubbed Lily the wrong way.

"Excuse me?" She asked in a suspicious tone.

"You're excused. Now if _you'll_ excuse _me_, I have to get going." Sakura bit back, closing her bag and motioning for the girls to step aside to let her through. The three girls remained impassive. This was not Sakura's day.

"Look, I don't know what you were doing with Syaoran this morning, but just remember who he is, who I am, and how I can make your high school life very difficult." Lily threatened. Sakura almost laughed out loud, was this girl trying to threaten her for having a single conversation with her boyfriend? Overprotective much? This made Sakura consider getting 'caught' talking with Syaoran again… except that would mean that she'd have to talk with that smart aleck again, which definitely wasn't worth the effort.

"Oh I'm _so_ scared of you and your empty threats. Why don't you go tell them to someone else who actually gives a f*ck? (Note: Sakura swore here, I don't promote swearing, so I will be censoring, as I feel appropriate) I can and will talk to whoever I want to. Unfortunately, you people aren't on my list, so please stop talking to me now." And with that, she brushed past one of the stunned groupie girls and walked out.

* * *

Serving detention in the library after school, Sakura's patience was quickly running thin. How thick headed and egotistical could her math teacher possibly be to think that she deserved a page-long essay of apology in compensation for walking in 15 minutes late to the class? She cast a glance around the empty library, noticing that even the librarian, her supposed supervisor for this detention, seemed to have had something better to do and left.

Sakura thought to herself about how easy it would be to just leave her essay as it was—empty—and leave. However that wouldn't get the completed page onto her teacher's desk by 4pm. She sighed, drilling a dark hole in the desk with her pencil before the fragile piece of lead finally snapped under the pressure.

She found her gaze sliding to the row of empty computers. It would be much easier and faster if she could type her essay… she could even make the font bigger… that was it! Sakura sat up suddenly as she realized her solution to fill the page faster. Her math teacher had instructed Sakura to go to the library to write up her reflection essay, she'd never specified that it had to be handwritten.

Not wanting to be disturbed by anyone who might potentially be passing by, Sakura moved down the line of computers to the one on the very end, completely covered behind by a bookshelf of thick encyclopaedias. You know, books that thick could really kill someone if wielded properly. Who even used encyclopaedias these days anyways? Sakura shook her head, moving on from the thought as she seated herself at the computer, pulling up a blank text document.

'_I'm sorry I walked into class late. Things happened and even though I ran all the way from my house to the school, I couldn't make it in time. If only I had a teleporter or could fly, this would not be a problem. But sadly, living in the 20__th__ century we don't, so I can't.'_

Sakura paused, wondering what she should write to follow up next. Three lines weren't going to be enough to fill the page unless she _super_ magnified it.

'_It's bad to be late for appointments, but things happen and people are late all the time. My father says in Italy people are regularly late and it doesn't bother anyone. If I were Italian I wouldn't even have to write this letter because it wouldn't bother my teacher.'_

Sakura wondered if that last sentence would have offended her teacher, but she was too lazy to care.

'_Anyways, being the Japanese person that I am, I was late and I apologize for my lateness.'_

Sakura glanced at the word count at the bottom of the document, which read 117 words. her teacher hadn't given her a specified word limit, so it shouldn't matter, right? But there was so much free space left on the word document... _Oh well, in reality I write much bigger than the font is on this word document, so it should be okay to make the font reasonably larger to accommodate for that, right?_ Sakura thought to herself as she changed to 24-point font. The page still wasn't completely full. _Our English teacher DOES always tell us to double-space, right? Gotta stay consistent with my formatting! _She double-spaced the formatting. _Now it's too long… I guess I can make my text a little bit smaller so it'll stay within one page… _She adjusted the font to 22-point. _Perfect!_

Looking at her completed essay in satisfaction, Sakura glanced up at the clock. 3:45. She had 15 minutes left before her teacher would come collect Sakura and her completed essay from the library. What was she supposed to do until then? Sakura thought for a moment, unwilling to go back and add or change her completed essay, which she felt to be a masterpiece. Instead, she found herself opening up a new blank document. Since she finally had the time, maybe she would just use the time to vent. Recalling all of the horrible things that had happened to her over the past few days, she certainly wondered if she would feel better just letting it all out harmlessly instead of actually hurting anyone. With that thought in mind, she decided to start writing.

_I hate my life. 16 years old with no family, no friends, and no future to look forward to. Well, sure there's my stupid older brother, but what kind of family is he? He doesn't even cook for me, he makes me do it half the time! Isn't it his job to take care of me and make sure I'm fed and living in a clean environment while our dad is away? Well, I guess my dad's not dead either, but being away for work on the other side of the world, he's as good as it in terms of helping support me and listen to my problems when I have them. Then again, my whole life is filled with problems, and it doesn't help that my one and only friend is being taken away from me by her boyfriend._

_I mean h-e-l-l-o, she's my best friend, and we've been friends since kindergarten! I'm happy for her and all, but just because he's there, doesn't mean she has to spend all of her free time with her and leave me in the dust. What kind of friend does that? Yesterday she suddenly cancelled on me because she had plans with him. For the third time! Really, does she think that just apologizing to me and saying she'll make it up to me later fixes the whole thing? It just makes things harder for me because I can't keep acting mean to her, otherwise she won't be friend with me anymore. But what does that leave me with? I wonder if she even realized this no-choice-but-to-act-like-I-don't-mind option to deal with._

_And then there's the popular kids to talk about! F*ck, I could rant about them for hours. Just because they may be pretty or good looking or whatever, why should they be special? Who died and made them in charge of the school? Those b*tches strutting around school, acting like they're the sh*t and threatening that no one can mess with them or they'll ruin their lives. Who do they think they are? I'm not afraid of them. I swear this whole thing about who's cool and who's not was all just a ploy by those idiots who needed people to respect them because they couldn't get respect for anything other than their looks. I mean, do any of those popular kids even have a brain in their head? Lily certainly doesn't, thinking she's all that with her English name which is exclusively for people she deems worthy. She's not half-English for god's sake, she's half-French! Plus she was born and raised in Japan anyways and doesn't even speak a word of French, so why does the French bit even remotely equate to her being cool? She—_

"Kinomoto?" Sakura looked up as she saw her math teacher walking into the room. It was a miracle the lady hadn't forgotten she existed. She looked up at the clock. 4:10. Okay, so the lady _had_ forgotten she existed for 10 minutes or so. Whatever. Sakura would let it slide. This time.

"Here ma'am. I finished my essay on the computer, should I print it now?" Sakura asked politely, not wanting to be kept any longer than she'd already been kept.

"Yes, yes. Print your essay to the library's first printer and then you're free to leave. I'll collect it from there." Her teacher responded curtly.

"Yes ma'am" Sakura replied, clicking the print button on her essay before closing the window. She paused for a moment when she came to her rant document. It would seem like a waste to stop here, when she had only just gotten started… Sakura decided to save the file so that she could finish it later. No one even used the library computers because they didn't have Internet connection anyways, so what did it matter if there was an extra document? She clicked the save button and titled the document "reasons why my life sucks" before closing the program.

Not wanting to wait for her math professor to retrieve the document and possibly scold her for it, Sakura gathered her backpack and bolted out the door as quickly as she could manage, halfway out the door when her math teacher's exasperated call reached her ears. Sakura was already dreading their next class together.

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**Things you should know about me/my style of writing (#1):**

**I don't advocate swearing or sexual innuendoes (such a pity the foundation of much English humour tends to rely on such low-class humour), so I try to keep it minimal. Doesn't mean they won't be there though. As such, I'm choosing to censor swearing, even though the characters don't.**


	3. Chapter 3-1

**So I'm back again with more... this is 3.1 which will be followed by 3.2 almost immediately (today or tomorrow)...**

**Before I say anything else let me say thank you very much to gamma-rae-star and the Mixku 3 for the comments! It warmed my heart to know people actually read what I said and posted for me ^^ Glad to hear people are liking Sakura's sass! (I was a bit uncertain about going so OOC, but since that doesn't seem to be a problem, it will continue~) As you requested, Mixku, there will be more of Tomoyo to come in the near future~ (and I'm glad to hear that I didn't offend any French people with Lily, because it totally wasn't my intent ^^")**

**That's it for me guys, thanks for reading and enjoy!**

* * *

By the end of the week, Sakura had completely forgotten about the rant she had typed up and saved on the school computer. It was only on Friday, as she was sitting on her own outside on the stairs during lunch (Tomoyo had only taken enough time to apologize briefly before being swept away by Eriol to the rooftop) that she was reminded of it by the conversation of two girls who were passing by.

"So yesterday, I was waiting for Rina 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet, when she calls me and tells me she can't make it because something came up with her boyfriend."

"Seriously? That sucks! What happened?"

"Who knows… all I know is that it sucked to be stood up. Even though she apologized, does she think that alone would make up for it? I just need to vent for a bit..."

Sakura huffed in agreement when the two were out of earshot. She was glad to hear she wasn't the only one who'd taken second place to some romantic partner. But at the same time, what did that say about women? To be so captivated and discard friends right after finding a lover… such fickle beings. It annoyed her. Sakura vowed that she'd never get so caught up in love to abandon her friends… then again; did she even have friends to abandon? Whatever, now wasn't the time to sweat the details.

Sakura was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when a desperate voice called, "Look out!"

She turned her head just in time to see a thin metal rod come flying in a wide arc towards her. Judging from the arc, it looked like it would go right past her down the stairs so she wouldn't have to worry about it—but her body acted faster than her mind did, leaping up and catching the baton with one hand. Now falling, Sakura turned her body and positioned her free hand to balance on a step further down, helping her turn a neat cartwheel and land smoothly on the wider stair platform. It was a really good thing the stairs had that platform; otherwise she would have been done for. She heaved a quick sigh.

"Wow, that was AMAZING!" An astounded voice came from above where she had just been standing. "I-I mean oh my gosh, are you okay? Did you get hurt? I'm so sorry!" Sakura raised her head to find a pretty girl with braided, light-brown hair and deep brown eyes staring at her in concern.

Sakura shrugged, walking back up to the stairs to hand the girl her baton.

"Thank you so much! I'm sorry for my carelessness!" The girl apologized again.

Sakura nodded, turning to leave.

"That was super cool! You have such amazing balance! And you're so flexible! I'm sorry for my carelessness, but thanks to that I got to see something really good! Have you ever considered joining the cheerleading club?" The girl burst out, her eyes roving Sakura's face eagerly.

"Um… no." Sakura replied uncertainly, shifting her eyes away from the other girl's gaze. She had done cheerleading in elementary and middle school, but she didn't see any reason to bring that up with the girl.

"You totally should consider it! I'm thinking of joining too, so we could be in it together!" The girl persisted. Sakura raised an eyebrow at how energetic she was.

"Nah, I'm not really interested…" She offered, making to leave and end their conversation. Before she could leave, the girl grabbed her hand with both hands.

"No! But you're so good! It would be a waste for someone with as much talent as you not to join the team! I was actually on my way to try-out right now because I heard that they're a bit short on members and are hence still accepting people this far into the semester. Come with me!"

Sakura turned to meet the girl's eager eyes with a bit of confusion. Why was this girl so persistent? It wasn't like she had anything against cheerleading or against this girl, but…

"Pleease! The truth is I'm a little bit nervous going there by myself… I'm new here so I haven't made any friends yet. It would mean a lot to me if you could come with me! So please?" The girl pleaded. Sakura, still saying nothing, simply continued to stare back at her while considering the offer and all the costs and benefits of going. She could see no reason to refuse the girl, but no reason to accept either.

"Pleeease?" The girl asked again.

"O-okay…" Sakura answered at last. "I don't really have anything else to do so—" She was cut off as the other girl suddenly gave her a big hug.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you! You have no idea how much this means!" She flashed Sakura a big smile with twinkling eyes that, Sakura noted, made her look very pretty.

"I-it's nothing…" Sakura replied hastily.

"Nonsense, it's a big help!" The girl continued, now moving and dragging Sakura along with her, assumedly towards the school gym. "I transferred here just two weeks ago, so it's been a little bit difficult getting around and getting to know people. I'm hoping I'll be able to make friends once I join a club and get involved. I'm Chiharu by the way. Chiharu Mihara."

Sakura glanced at Chiharu who was now looking back at her with eager, expectant eyes. "Kinomoto…" She offered at last. "Sakura Kinomoto."

"Oh! You're Kinomoto! I think we're in some of the same classes! You were the one that got scolded by the math teacher earlier this week, right? That math teacher is way too uptight… I mean, just because you were a little late it shouldn't mean that you have to stay so much later to make up for it, right? She's gotta learn to breathe a little." Sakura just blinked at her. Was this girl actually defending her? That was a first… other than Tomoyo, that is.

* * *

"Anyways, we're here!" Chiharu announced, throwing open the gymnasium doors. "Sorry I'm late! Chiharu Mihara here! I ran into someone along the way and managed to convince her to come along!" She walked into the gym, pulling Sakura along with her. Sakura cast a quick glance at the group of cheerleaders waiting for them and remembered again why she hadn't joined the cheerleading group.

"Kinomoto." Lily's voice came first from the crowd.

"Lily." Sakura responded back in a bored tone.

"What do you think you're doing here?" She asked, in a low tone.

"Like I just said, I found her along the way and brought her with me…" Chiharu interjected, looking from Sakura to Lily with a bit of confusion. "I heard the cheerleading squad was low on members so I figured one more person trying out wouldn't hurt."

"We're not so desperate that we have to stoop so low as to take just _anyone_." Lily replied quickly, her eyes narrowing at Sakura. Now Sakura knew why they were so short on members; probably no one wanted to have to deal with Lily and her gang.

"But she's not just anyone, Sakura's really good and—" Chiharu was cut off as Lily took a step towards them.

"Are you kidding me? This good-for-nothing who can't even make it to class on time can't possibly be—"

"Excuse me?" Sakura cut her off, narrowing her eyes as well. Was this b*tch really going to go so far as to single her out as a failure without any proof?

"You heard me, you suck and you have no place on this squad." Lily answered defiantly. Seriously, who did she think she was? Someone needed to be shown her place, and Sakura decided it would be her. She marched up to Lily, meeting her eyes with a fierce, unwavering glare.

"You can't decide what I'm worth without testing me first. I'll bet I'm leagues better than you _and_ your entire posse." She declared. Lily sneered.

"Fine, you can have your go at it. I'll have you know my _posse_ and I have been cheerleading since middle school and are champions." She bragged, staring at Sakura who never dropped her gaze.

_Time to show these losers where they belong._ Sakura thought to herself, walking around Lily to take the baton from Chiharu, who was still watching in stunned silence.

Sakura walked away from the group and took a moment to pause. She sighed inwardly wondering why she let herself get goaded into such a thing. All eyes were on her, so there was no backing out of things now. It was time to rock the stage. _絶対大丈夫よ_ (Everything will surely be okay).

She started off simply, twirling the baton with ease in her right hand, holding it above her head before moving her arm in a circular motion to form loops. Throwing the baton up into the air, she performed three quick spins before catching the falling baton in her left hand. She then raised her left arm and let the baton spin down her left arm, across the back of her neck, and over to her waiting right arm. Finally, she threw the baton high and—she noted with a bit of irritation—a little farther than she had intended. Performing a roundoff and two back handsprings and a backflip for good measure. She stuck her landing just in time to have the baton fall just off to her right, which she caught neatly and twirled above her head. All those times in middle school, throwing the baton too far and having to adjust for it, wasn't just for nothing.

She raised triumphant eyes to the crowd of cheerleaders, openly impressed by her little performance, and then turned to Lily whose wide-eyed expression of disbelief was the most satisfying of all. Her smile quickly turned into a smirk as she even ended things off with a deep bow, arms stretched wide, before quickly turning back to Lily who had regained her composure and was now scowling with open hostility. _Suck it, b*tch._

* * *

**So I've never actually done gymnastics, baton-twirling OR cheerleading so... my apologies if that wasn't nearly as impressive (or as well-described) as I imagined it would be. I could draw you a picture of the routine I envisioned in my head, but that would probably be even more confusing than my description. =S Oh well, live with it for a bit, I won't be describing cheerleading often (I hope)...**


	4. Chapter 3-2

**What do you know, when I said I'd upload this within a day or so, I actually managed to do it... =3**

**Anyways, here it is! Part two of what is chapter 3 (even though I guess the numbering will be a bit off now because of this...)**

**Thank you for your comment Aritella, and thanks again Mixku~ Glad you like Chiharu, I'll be trying to incorporate more and more characters into my story as time goes on ^^ (because it's boring if it's just a vanilla SxS story, is it not? =P)**

**Without further ado, onwards to part 2~ thank you for reading!**

* * *

After completing her little routine, Sakura raised triumphant eyes to the crowd of cheerleaders and to Lily, whose wide-eyed expression of disbelief was the most satisfying of all. Smirking, Sakura ended with a deep bow, arms stretched wide, before quickly turning back to Lily who had regained her composure and was now scowling with open hostility. _Suck it, b*tch._

The prolonged silence was cut at last by the sound of slow applause from the doorway of the gymnasium, quickly followed up by the other girls in the squad. Lily looked up at the figure at the doorway and gasped. Sakura spun around to meet a pair of gleaming amber eyes.

"So it's not just the talk, she can walk the walk, hmm?" Syaoran teased. Before Sakura could respond she was almost thrown off balance when a body crashed into her in a big hug.

"Sakura! Sakura! I knew it! I just knew it! You were amazing! You were super cool! How did you do that?! You have to teach me!" Chiharu chattered happily, distracting her for a moment.

"I-it was nothing." Sakura replied yet again, cursing inwardly as she felt a slight blush forming in her cheeks. She shook her head to clear it away immediately. Breaking free of Chiharu, Sakura but was immediately surrounded by some of the cheerleaders who frantically jabbering away at her all at once.

How did she do that? Where did she learn to twirl? Why hadn't she come to them sooner? Sakura made no effort to answer their questions, and was actually saved when Lily cleared her throat loudly and silenced the other girls.

"Just because you got lucky and knew a few cool tricks, don't let it go to your head. You still won't make it on the team." Lily spat. But even Lily was unprepared for the complaints and disagreement that her comment was met with from a few of the other girls.

"It looks like not everyone here agrees with you Ms. Suzuki. And if many of them seem to think she would be qualified for the team, why not let her? She's clearly got a knack for it…" A voice called from somewhere on the other side of the gym. Sakura turned to find the physical education teacher, Mr. Terada, standing there. She quickly turned to scan the rest of the gym. _Seriously, how many random bystanders happened to be around watching me just now?_

Sakura didn't know what to say. Looking back at the teacher, she met his amused expression with her blank one. "Well Ms. Kinomoto, will you be joining the team this year?" The teacher asked kindly. Sakura didn't have a reply for him. She let her gaze wander until it fell on Chiharu, who was still standing by her side. It occurred to her that the other girl hadn't even had a chance to show her skills yet.

"Give her a chance to try-out, and then we'll talk." Sakura said with a nod in Chiharu's direction, before turning on her heel and walking out the gymnasium doors, accompanied by numerous voices (Chiharu's above all) calling after her.

* * *

Walking swiftly across the courtyard, Sakura kept up her brisk pace long after she knew she was at risk of being pursued by anyone, finding herself at the library entrance before she was even aware of anything else. Well, the library would be relatively empty since kids these days seem to want to avoid being labelled "bookworm" like the plague. Without giving it much thought, Sakura walked into the room and plopped down at an empty desk and finally began to process what had just happened.

_So, I still don't know how this all happened, but what are my options…_ Sakura mused. Chiharu Mihara. Strange transfer student, but she seemed nice enough. The girl had been desperate for Sakura to join the cheerleading squad with her, but if she joined on her own, she'd probably make friends soon enough to not care about whether Sakura joined with her or not.

On the other hand, despite how apathetic Sakura might act towards cheerleading, she knew that it was something that she was good at and enjoyed deep down in her heart. It must've been some cruel twist of fate for her to reach her current circumstance: invited to join the squad, but unwilling to join to be stuck with Lily and her crew for any longer than she had to. She had already hesitated enough before deciding not to join the squad at the start of the year, why did she just _have_ to be faced with a second chance now? Her resolve was wavering again.

_It was pretty satisfying to wipe those smug expressions off all those who thought that I was just boasting… but will it still be worth it when I have to meet with said b*tches and the queen b*tch, Lily on a regular basis? _Sakura would then have to be worried for her life if she chose to join the team. Lily had a reputation of backing her threats with violence or bullying from her connections, and Sakura wasn't exactly looking to be placed at the top of that hit list.

_Argh, I don't know!_ Sakura groaned, throwing her arms up in frustration. _What am I supposed to do now?_ She absentmindedly cast a glance around the empty library, wondering where even the librarian had disappeared to at this time of the day. Then her eyes fell on the row of computers.

_Oh yeah, I was thinking about that unfinished rant of mine earlier too… _Moving down the line of computers, she came to a stop at the computer she saved her rant on earlier in the week.

She searched through the documents until she found the file titled "reasons why my life sucks" and opened it up. Re-reading what she had written, she felt a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. To hell with her education, she could be a writer if she wanted to. Okay no, not really.

After she'd tired of reading her own thoughts written in words, Sakura closed the file with some satisfaction. If nothing else, at least it felt better to write things down to let it all out. Society was too oppressed to give her any other option or form of release, in her opinion.

As she stared blankly at the screen in front of her, something managed to catch her eye. Located right below her file was another file titled "reasons why the grass is greener on the other side". Sakura let out a snort of amusement. Lame filename much? Though she had to admit, there was something captivating about the title, which was coincidentally similar to her own. Sakura's eyes drifted to the modification date, listed as the day before. _I wonder if it wasn't a coincidence._ She opened the file, just to be sure.

_I hate my life-_

Sakura raised an eyebrow, noticing that it was exactly the same as her first sentence. Clearly this person had read her file, and hence it also meant that she was free to read theirs. She continued reading.

_I hate my life too. You think you've got it bad, I think it's time for you to wake up and smell the coffee. Life's all about social ladders and striving to climb as high as you can up there, haven't you noticed that yet?_

_You sound like it's all the fault of the popular kids that you don't have any friends. Isn't that just a pathetic excuse for yourself who is either unable or unwilling to make friends? Just FYI, being popular doesn't suddenly equate to a good life of luxury or guarantee you rights to rule the school. I've been there, I'd know. Actually, being popular, there are just times when you don't want people to know who you are. There are times when you want to be forgotten, left to yourself. There are times when you just want to be free._

_It's not all fun and games up in paradise. Plus, people generally aren't born popular, they become popular. Some have superficial reasons like money or connections, and sure, there are people like Lily who will be snobs to others because of their position, but have you ever thought that you're overgeneralizing things more than just a little bit? Being popular doesn't equal being a jerk, just like being unpopular doesn't equal being a loser, right?_

_I am sorry about your friend though; it looks like she just needs time and a little help to get her priorities straight. Even though it seems like it's difficult for you to complain after she's apologized, it sounds like you've got to put your foot down and confront her about the problem, or she'll never change and you'll never be less miserable._

Sakura blinked while continuing to stare at the screen, even after she reached the end of the text. That was… unexpected. Although she had been irritated at the beginning when this person had sounded so arrogant and made it seem like everything that happened to her was her fault, she somehow couldn't find any room to argue with much of their reasoning. So some popular jerk had read her file and thought to reply. Great. Just great.

Okay, so maybe it wouldn't be fair to think of them as a jerk just yet on the basis that they were popular. Sakura decided that she would hold off on that reasoning for just a little bit longer.

So even popular kids had issues… and apparently not all of them were as stupid and full of hot air as she had assumed. The surprises just kept coming.

_Well, what now?_ Sakura wondered, staring at the message again. She couldn't just walk away and leave things as they were, with this stranger thinking they had corrected her and emerged victorious. Clearly she was entitled to defend herself and make a reply.

Just as she was opening a new document and preparing for what she would say next, the school bell rang, reminding Sakura that lunch break didn't last forever, and that she had to hurry to class if she didn't want to get scolded again. She sighed and grabbed her backpack from the seat next to her, leaving the library but vowing to return and write that response when she got the chance.

* * *

**Things you should probably know about me/my style of writing (#2):**

**I don't like all the 'fated shoujo moments' where every time you're reading about some characters, they just 'coincidentally' happen to have some eventful encounter with someone else, so I try to include unrelated, regular scenes to mix it up. As a result, we get lots of stuff in between main bits, making it longer and less meaningful for those that just want a quick love story. I apologize if it's slow, but hey, isn't it nice being more realistic for a change? Syaoran happened to appear (fated encounter), but that doesn't necessarily mean she has to acknowledge him, right? -my defence.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hello again, dear readers, and welcome to chapter 4! I'm speeding things up just a little here, so hopefully this length and speed of progression will be okay. **

**A quick thank you to Mixku and gamma-rae-star for both of your continued support! Although things were toned down a bit in this chapter, I hope you'll stay with me for it ^^**

**Idk if I actually need them, but since I forgot them last chapter, here are the usual disclaimers: This is a FANfiction which should be enough indication that I don't own the original story. The premise was inspired by Autumdragon. I DO own this fanfiction though, so please respect that.**

**Enough from me (I fit more at the bottom anyways :3), here's chapter 4! **

* * *

After spending an uneventful afternoon of classes, Sakura found herself wandering the school hallways during last period, bored out of her mind. Her school was the only school in Tomoeda (and probably one of the very few in all of Japan), which even offered students the option of having a free block instead of an elective. Even with this option, more than 95% of students chose to take an elective to fill the space rather than miss the chance to something that could be potentially beneficial for gaining admission to university.

Sakura, being one among the tiny minority of students who didn't care about getting into university, decided she didn't want to sit through one more boring class than she had to, and hence kept her free block. Unfortunately this meant that she was left navigating the ghost-town-of-the-hallways waiting for Tomoyo on most Fridays.

The two had an established ritual of spending Friday afternoons together since they were in elementary school. Despite Tomoyo's recent bailing on some of their meetings, Sakura was somewhat pleased that her friend hadn't yet broken their Friday tradition.

Unlike most Fridays that she spent waiting, this Friday Sakura had an idea of how she could spend her free time, and set off down the hall with purposeful strides.

* * *

'_Well I'm glad to know that there is SOME justice out there in the world…'_ Sakura began typing, moments after she had returned to the computer. '_But you could've definitely had ME fooled into believing that popular people don't have a spare moment to be unhappy in their lives. You say it might just be people like Lily who act like that, but I call it BS.'_

Sakura thought back to those times when she'd been forced to endure being in the presence of those other girls in Eriol's social circle and their endless stream of pointless gossip and rumours. Eriol himself was one of the most pompous know-it-all jerks around, and most of the time Sakura found it hard to see what Tomoyo found in the guy.

_You say it's just some b*tches like Lily who think their popularity gives them the rights to act like snobs and do whatever they want—I say it's way more than just "some". If you've been going to the same school as me for half as long as I have (which is really saying something since this is still my first year here) then you'd already know about the pathetic way that this school is set up… it's like there's a line between who's cool and who's not, and everyone clearly knows where they stand. _

_I've been around some of those snoots that spend all of their waking hours debating who's worthy to be in their presence and whose love letters they don't need to bother replying to. It's sickening. Fine, may not all be outright jerks like Lily is, but they all have their own messed up egos from letting the popularity get to their heads. I DARE you to name one popular person who isn't like the rest of them; who doesn't feel like superiority is practically their birthright from being born pretty or popular._

_Sure, life's all about social ladders, I know that. But isn't that just sad? Doesn't it make you wonder how things came to this, where the rich get richer and the poor starve to death? Why between two people of equal qualifications in a job position, a tall, white male would be making more money than a female of any other race? Why the beautiful get complimented, supported, believed more than others? Why women are expected to be quiet, subservient housewives to many men? You could say "that's just life", but I say it's f*cked up. If people know things are messed up, why can't they work to CHANGE things? Why can't we forget the ethnic differences, socioeconomical differences, or gender differences? Why can't we just be who we want to be without judging or being judged?_

_It's easy enough for the old farts to just give up and say "that's just how life is" and go along with it, but I have my whole life ahead of me and I sure as hell don't want to spend it worrying about how I look when I bat my eyes at some rich guy who I'm trying to allow me to play housewife for. I want to be myself and live for myself._

Sakura paused for a moment wondering how to continue. But looking over the message, she found that she couldn't really continue. _So… should I sign this thing or something?_ She wondered, wondering if the person who'd read her last document would even return to read this new one. Deciding that she couldn't sign it with her real name, she took a moment before deciding her alias, '_The Dreamer'._

Titling her document "Reasons Why You're Wrong", Sakura finished just as the final bell rang, and left to go find Tomoyo.

* * *

"Kinomoto-san! Kinomoto-san!" Monday morning, mere minutes after the school bell had sounded to signify the start of lunch, Sakura looked up from her desk, expecting to see Tomoyo, but finding and extremely excited Chiharu standing in her place.

"I did it! Mr. Terada said that I could join the team!" She appeared to be gushing with happiness. "I've wanted to do cheerleading for so long! This is so great! My other school's cheerleading team was already full and they said I wasn't good enough and—thank you! If it wasn't for your help, I'd never have had the courage to even show up for try-outs!"

Sakura stared blankly for a moment. Was this girl ever anything but… super happy? She didn't know how to deal with all the enthusiasm that was radiating from this girl. "It was—"

"Yeah, I know, you were going to say 'it was nothing', right? But that's wrong! It's not nothing, I'm really grateful for your support, so just let me thank you for a bit, okay?" Chiharu cut her off with a big smile. Sakura just continued staring at her before dipping her head once in acknowledgement, to which Chiharu's smile—if it was even possible—got even bigger. However she suddenly dropped the smile soon after and started back in a surprisingly timid tone.

"So… I know I've probably already imposed on you a lot and all, but since I just transferred into this school and all, I haven't really made any friends yet. If you don't mind, could we… maybe have lunch together?" Sakura found herself faced with Chiharu's pleading eyes once again and knew that, as it was before, she would have a hard time rejecting the girl. She thought about it for a moment anyways and figured that the girl was nice enough to deserve a shot.

"Well I already have plans to have lunch with my friend Tomoyo… but if you wouldn't mind eating with her, the three of us could have lunch together." She offered, and could tell immediately from the grin that she received what Chiharu's answer was.

As if right on cue Tomoyo walked into the classroom with her lunchbox in-hand and, although she may have shown an instant of surprise at finding Chiharu leaned across Sakura's desk chatting away excitedly, Sakura acknowledged her friend as she approached them, full of smiles.

"Hey Tomoyo, this is the new transfer student…"

"I'm Chiharu! Chiharu Mihara! I transferred to this school a few weeks ago and, thanks to Kinomoto-san's help, managed to join the cheerleading team last Friday! Would you mind if I joined the two of you for lunch today?" Chiharu supplied excitedly as Tomoyo reached the two of them.

"Not at all Mihara-san, it would be great if you could join us!" Tomoyo replied with equal enthusiasm. "I'm Tomoyo Daidouji, nice to meet you!" And with that, the three of them left to find a place to picnic outside, Tomoyo and Chiharu keeping a flowing conversation with Sakura piping up occasionally.

* * *

"…first took an interest in cheerleading when I learned how to spin my pen between my fingers in Elementary school! Some classes were especially boring, so I got lots of practice in… of course when I started out I wasn't very good, so sometimes the pen would go flying and hit people or things in the middle of the class. When they did, I got scolded by the teacher pretty badly, but they always let me off easily because I think they found it amusing too!" Chiharu explained between bites as the three of them sat comfortably underneath a cherry blossom tree in the courtyard.

"So I see you progressed from using a pen to a baton, just like our ancestors did centuries ago." An unknown voice piped up. The three girls turned to find a boy with short, jet-black hair standing near where the three were sitting with a mysterious smile on his face.

"Yamazaki-san? When did you get here?" Tomoyo asked in surprise as none of the three had noticed the boy approach.

"Just now. Forgive my intrusion into your conversation, I saw three lovely ladies chatting away all by themselves over here and figured it would be a crime not to come over and say hello. The boy supplied. Sakura gave a short huff of amusement as she recognized him to boy a in the same grade with whom she had a few classes: Takashi Yamazaki. Yamazaki was one of the popular clique and notorious for being a little bit of a playboy. He was also notorious for…

"But continuing on from what I was saying earlier," Yamazaki continued when none of the girls made any effort to stop him. "Did you know that the first baton was developed just as how you made the connection?" He directed his question at Chiharu, who was staring at him with a blank expression on her face. "In fact, the first baton was developed by a girl around our age who got very good at spinning a pen in one hand. She eventually got bored of her skill, and decided to take things to the next level by challenging her friends to see who could perform the coolest tricks with their pens. When her friends got better at pen-spinning, they all decided that things were just a little too easy to control with a small pen, so they crafted the first batons out of spare pieces of wood, making them much larger both to add more control and to allow for the execution of more complex tasks…" Yamazaki continued. Sakura responded with an ambiguous 'hnnn', which was how she often chose to respond to anything Yamazaki explained.

In addition to flirting with girls, Yamazaki was notorious for fabricating wild stories to explain certain objects or occurrences. The problem was that he managed to make things up so smoothly that, since Sakura had known him from way back in elementary school, it was difficult to catch him on his lies. When Sakura was younger she used to listen on in fascination any time she heard him going off on one of his explanations, foolishly falling for all of his lies. Nowadays with his spreading reputation, she had learned to listen to Yamazaki's explanations with much more scepticism—though she could never be really sure whether he was telling a lie or not, because he had also proven the validity of some of the stories he had told. She turned to Chiharu, wondering how the girl would react.

"Yeah, yeah, it's a fascinating story and all, but I think now's not the time to explain this. I mean, you probably haven't even properly introduced yourself to her yet, have you?" Tomoyo stood up and walked towards Yamazaki, motioning back at Chiharu. Yamazaki shook his head but bowed and bestowed her with a dazzling smile. "She's new to the school, her name's Chiharu Mihara. Mihara-san, this is Takashi Yamazaki… you'll probably learn more about him sooner or later. But for the time being…" Tomoyo made to push Yamazaki away as Sakura noticed that both she and Chiharu hadn't made a move yet.

"…knives…" came a quiet and unexpected reply.

Tomoyo stopped pushing Yamazaki away and turned to her. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said," Chiharu began with a little more volume, "the development of the baton began from juggler's tossing of knives and flaming torches. You were lying, it didn't have anything to do with pens." She said with a little frown to Yamazaki, who seemed quite surprised by her statement.

"Busted." Yamazaki said with a sheepish grin. "You're an interesting one, Chiharu-chan, did you learn that from Mr. Terada? Did you know? Mr. Terada used to be a champion cheerleader and—"

"Okay, okay, that's far enough! We'd love to hear the rest of it, but we're having a bit of girl time over here, so maybe some other time Yamazaki-san." Tomoyo cut in, pushing Yamazaki, who was still chuckling, away from the group. She returned a few moments later and the three shared a laugh before carrying on with their conversation.

* * *

"Reasons Why Z". Sakura stared at the document with a bit of surprise. She had really only half-expected a reply when she wrote one, but she hadn't expected the response to have come so soon. Without waiting any longer, she clicked the file to open it up.

_To The Dreamer,_

_If you want to think that all popular kids look down on other people in one way or another, you're still wrong. You could say the vast majority of them are like that, but people like them can be found at any level of wealth and popularity. Popular or not, everyone in the world wants to believe that they are worth something. Even the lowliest of human beings tries to find someone else who is worse off than themselves to feel better. I mean, look at you! I don't know exactly how far down you are in terms of popularity, but aren't you also looking down on the popular kids, feeling proud that you have more of a brain than they do?_

_You want me to name one person who is humble and doesn't gloat and abuse their born-rights? Fine, that's easy. Tomoyo Daidouji.—_

Sakura let out a little gasp. She hadn't thought that Tomoyo's name would arise in their conversation. Intrigued, she read on.

_Tomoyo Daidouji. She's a first year, slim, pretty and known for having the most beautiful voice in the school. She's the heiress to the Daidouji Toy Company, one of the biggest companies around. Shouldn't that mean that she's exactly the kind of person that you would hate? If you don't know her, you should go talk to her and then you'd see. She may be beautiful on the outside, but she's a beautiful person on the inside too. She hangs out with those in the popular crowd from time to time, but I don't think she sees the school in terms of who's popular and who's not. She treats people as equals and doesn't stop to think of whether people are worth helping or socializing with or not. I think…_

Sakura took her eyes away from the screen to register what she had just read. Nothing that this person had said about Tomoyo had been untrue, in fact, once upon a time when Sakura first met Tomoyo, she remember feeling closer to the girl _because_ she never flaunted her wealth or beauty. As it was, things had progressed to the point where Sakura had completely forgotten how wealthy her friend was and how she could have been among the most popular girls if she didn't choose to spend time with Sakura over them.

So now the question came to: who was this mystery writer? Could it possibly be Eriol Hiiragizawa? After all, the document seemed to be gushing with Tomoyo's praises, and who better to praise her than her very own boyfriend. Or maybe it was some secret admirer of Tomoyo's, in which case Eriol had competition. Sakura scanned the document again, but found it impossible to tell. With nothing else to do, she read on.

_I think that if it's anyone who has a chance at stepping things up and changing the way society is set up, Daidouji stands a good chance._

_That being said, Rome wasn't built in a day. Sure, I agree that the current state of the world is messed up in many ways, and there are many things that need to be changed rather than endured, but change is hard, and no one really has an answer as to how we can even begin to bring about such change. You could name all the suggestions that you can come up with, but can you really single-handedly make all the difference? No, you would need the help of hundreds, thousands, even millions and billions to achieve that. Not to mention time; time for people to accept the changes, time for people to change. I'm not laughing at you for being a dreamer, but I'm not saying that everything you're hoping for is even remotely possible. I want to see change too, if change is possible._

_Enough about that for now, I guess we have other matters to consider at the moment. Your argument past your initial emotional explosion interests me—_

Sakura snorted and wondered who this person was to sound so pompous in deciding what her documents were worth. Though she had to admit, she was intrigued reading the responses too.

…_interests me, and I'd like to hear more. Sadly, we've reached the end of the alphabet (if you didn't realize, that was why this document is 'z'), and I'm not quite sure I want other people reading our conversations, so maybe a shift in mediums is in order. Quite frankly, I don't want to be named, nor do I care who you are in order to talk with you. So keep using aliases if you want, but you can contact me at my email address given below. Delete our documents (or mine at the very lease) when you're done reading them._

_-The Swordsman_

Sakura almost laughed out loud. "The Swordsman"? Really? Well, at least that ruled out Tomoyo's boyfriend as the possible writer, he would definitely have picked something classier. At least it seemed reasonably safe to assume that this writer was male. She quickly pulled a piece of paper and jotted down the email address given. Closing the document, she was a little bit surprised when she realized that they had been titled in alphabetical order… She hadn't noticed when she randomly titled her document but apparently, The Swordsman had. Feeling slightly regretful at having to delete the messages, Sakura opened each one and read through it once more, committing them to memory before deleting them. _Destroy the evidence, hmm?_ She thought to herself, feeling like a secret agent who now shared a secret with the man named The Swordsman.

* * *

**Well, that was the chapter... I can't help but feel like it was only mediocre = Please let me know what you guys think~ Comments and suggestions (even better, criticism) would be much appreciated =) If I'm to improve I'm going to need some help on how best to do it ^^"**

**Notes: ****This story takes place in Japan, and that all conversations characters are having are actually in Japanese, translated. It annoys me when people ONLY translate pointless easy words like 'kawaii' and 'sensei', so I've done it all in English, with the exception of naming between classmates (the importance will be explained later) / Yamazaki is Takashi's last name / "The Dreamer" and "The Swordsman" were names characters wrote out in English, because many Japanese people think it's cool to mix in English for things like that.**


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